"The code on the label of imported fruit is mysterious. "A three-word label means it's been sprayed with pesticides, a four-word label means it's genetically modified, and a five-word label means it's a hybrid." Recently, an "deciphered micro blog" about the label code of imported fruits has been widely circulated on the Internet. To this end, the reporter visited many supermarkets and markets operating imported fruit business in Shanghai and found that the netizens' claims were inconsistent with the facts.

Do not know the meaning of the numbers

Yesterday afternoon, the reporter in Jing 'an Temple Jiuguang department store on the ground floor of the supermarket to see, the import of fruit counter dazzling. Most of the imported fruit "body" are affixed with labels, basically are four Arabic numerals, with "3" beginning, such as the United States produced red brin, with the label of "3609"; And the Israeli pomelo, labeled "3129." There are also "4" s, such as red snake fruit from the United States, which is labeled "4016," and rose apple from New Zealand, which is labeled "4122." In addition to the eye-catching label on the surface of the fruit, some imported fruit bags also have four digits representing identity, such as the plastic bag made in the United States black Ty has a striking "4056".

A female customer stops at the counter, carefully choosing the fruit. But when a reporter asked what the numbers meant, she shook her head. After waiting near the counter for 15 minutes, the reporter tried to ask five customers the same question, and got either "I don't know" or a vague answer "maybe it has something to do with the origin and variety."

Five code on behalf of the meaning

"In fact, this label code is not mysterious, the industry knows its origin." Shanghai Longwu Fruit Co., Ltd. is the main distribution center of imported fruits in Shanghai. The company's head of international operations told reporters that the label code, known in the industry as PriceLook-Upcode (PLU), was originally designed to make it easier to manage inventory. Most PLU codes are four-digit numbers between 3,000 and 4,999, with five digits representing special foods. Currently, this type of label code is primarily used by two organizations: The international federation of agricultural standards IFPS (InternationalFederationforProduceStandards) and the American association of fresh product distribution PMA (ProduceMarketAssociation), is not mandatory.

Reporters then log in to the IFPS official website and found that the PLU code is a four - or five-digit number, which has been used in supermarkets since 1990. Among them, the four-digit code does not represent any special meaning, but it is produced according to convention. The five-digit code is used to identify organic or genetically modified products. The first digit of the five-digit code is an "8", which represents the GMO product; The first digit of the five-digit code is "9", which represents organic products. The five-digit code is not visible to the reporter in the PLU code database. It turns out that each of these organic or genetically modified products has a corresponding regular product, and the label code is a prefix in front of that regular product.

Plastic Industry Video